Tabs

Thursday, 13 August 2009

Masked faces and unmasked paranoia

The protagonist of this post is definitely not a Page 3 socialite, quite important than that. My protagonist commands only the Page 1 of not one newspaper but every single one that is in print. The celebrity status that is achieved by this protagonist is something one cannot ignore. Finally the protagonist has arrived in Chennai with pomp and applause wait not applause but with masks. People talk about it everywhere: In the buses, in the trains, at schools, at markets, at coffee shops, at gossip sessions. Well, its obvious that my protagonist is powerful for it evokes fear and sustains repeated diatribes. There is a new class that has risen everywhere: The people with masks. There is a strong line of demarcation. The one with masks look down upon the ones with no masks and the one without masks look at the ones with it thinking "Poor souls, their immune power must be so low." The language is that of fear: A fear that makes one take several baths depending on the number of visits out of home (No wonder, the water levels are fast depleting everywhere), wash hands almost like a possessed being and the worse of all -- ADVICE. Every person has their two bits to offer when it comes to Swine Flu. Special arthis are done in Temples to appease the virus, prayer meets are held to drive the virus into the depths of the earth and doctors, not to forget them, are oh! so well prepared. (An Aside: Apollo Hospital, Delhi has refused to treat Swine Flu). When the whole population is bowing to the virus can bloggers be left far behind?

An inevitable strain of me: ADVISING: Please do take care and keep yourself armed with information and of course masks!